DNC Chair washes her hands of disturbing ad from pro-Obama PAC

Democratic National Committee (DNC) Chair and Florida Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Shultz sank to a new low in politics on FOX News Sunday this morning when she tried to distance the national party from a disturbing ad created by former Obama aides that ties GOP nominee Mitt Romney to the death of one of his former employees’ wives.

Wasserman Shultz told FOX News Sunday host John Roberts that not only was the DNC not responsible for the ad, she had no idea if the creators of the ad were even Democrats.

The ad in question, released by pro-Obama Super PAC Priorities USA, insinuates that Romney is responsible for the death of the wife of a former GST steel mill employee, Joe Soptic. In the ad Soptic says that after he lost his job at GST, which Romney’s former firm Bain Capital shut down, his wife became ill with cancer a short time after that. He claims that his wife could have been sick for longer than she indicated to him, but kept it a secret because they couldn’t afford the insurance. The man accuses Romney of “not understanding” what he did and not being concerned.

However, the timeline established by the ad of Soptic’s wife’s death is shamefully misleading. Romney was no longer at Bain Capital when Soptic’s steel mill was shut down. Regardless, Soptic’s wife had her own healthcare insurance through her own job at the time the mill was closed (a job she later lost for reasons unrelated to cancer), and most importantly, she didn’t die shortly after her husband lost his job at GST Steel, she died five years later.

“Should the Democrats be releasing an ad that accuses a presidential candidate of being responsible – through inference – of being responsible for a woman’s death?” Roberts asked Shultz on Fox News Sunday.

“First of all that’s a Priorities USA [ad] – it’s not a Democratic ad, ” Wasserman Shultz responded. “It’s a Priorities USA Super PAC ad, which we have nothing to do with.”

“Do you deny that they’re Democrats?” Roberts pressed.

“I have no idea what the political affiliation is of folks who are associated with that Super PAC,” Wasserman Shultz said, playing dumb.